Mysterious PET Scan?

Posted By Sue G on November 01, 1998 at 22:48:10:







My son Daniel, who is now 5, was diagnosed with medulloblastoma in July of 1995 He had a total tumor resection, and had a chemothreapy couse of cisplatin,cytosin, vincristine, and VP-16 which he completed in Jan of 1997. He had no radation, and has been in remssion since late 95. He does have a VP shunt, as the tumor caused him to have obstructive hydrocephalus.
      Daniel could not even lift his head after the surgery, and he could not talk After a lot of rehab, he can now walk, ride a bike, etc, but he still can not talk. He is cognitiviely fine, he can even do first grade level spelling words on the computer, plus loves math games But his drs and i  did not undertsand why 3 years post op he still could not talk and stil has some cordination problems So, we did a PET scan Much to everyones suprise  the PET scan showed that Daniel has hypometabolisam in the thalamus. plus mild hypometabolism in the superior temporal cortex
  Daniel also has unilateral micropthalmia, forr which he has had several surgeries for,has babsal cell crcinoma syndrome, but the hypometabolism is not assocoated with this syndrome
My question is that the PET scan dr here wants to do another scan, possibly with hydroxyephedrine, to determine the etilogy of the hypometabolism  Do  you have an opinon of what may have caused this, and would another PET scan really help?
  Thanks!